“We need to shut the border.… The president could take executive action to do it today—doesn’t need more money. It needs action, and this is what’s disappointing to people, and that’s why Mayorkas is gonna pay this public relations price by being impeached for the first time since 1876,” Hill said.
Notably absent from Hill’s explanation was any description of high crimes and misdemeanors committed by Mayorkas. Hill all but admitted that, with the impeachment, Republicans are aiming to make Mayorkas the face of their anti-Biden, anti-immigrant campaign, despite his having not committed impeachable offenses.”
Okay, let’s start. I’ll address things that are solely covered under the Bill of Rights, either enumerated or implied.
A not insignificant number of liberal Democrats believe that speech they believe to be hateful should not be legally permissible. Things like, Fox News shouldn’t be allowed to broadcast, Nazis shouldn’t be allowed to hold rallies, etc. I’ve had the argument many, many times that there is no “hate speech” exception to 1A, and there shouldn’t be, since it was intended to protect unpopular and dangerous speech (…such as sedition against the king). (ETA - Many Dems actively mock the idea of freedom of speech/press/etc, e.g. “freeze peach”. Yes, the solution to free speech is more free speech).
A very large number of liberal Democrats believe that individual ownership of firearms should be banned or restricted to the point where it’s effectively banned. Gun control and support for wholesale bans is literally part of the party platform.
Certain Democratic majority states have passed laws preventing people that are protesting reproductive rights from getting too close to people using the clinics, or the clinics themselves.
I’ve absolutely seen liberal Democrats say that certain religious expression and practice by individuals and religious institutions should be banned under penalty of law, notably treatment of LGBTQ+ people by conservative religions. See also: “‘hate speech’ exception to 1A”.
Keep in mind that I do largely vote Democratic in national and state-level elections, but I’m personally more of a libertarian socialist. I vote Democratic because they’re more likely to do most of the things I want than Republicans.
“Incitement” is a long-standing, widely-accepted exception to the first amendment not mentioned in the amendment itself. Just because the literal text of the document does not include an exception does not mean our legal system can not invent one. While I generally agree that speech should not be regulated outside of extreme circumstance, this is a very common human thing to want.
No argument on the second amendment. I do believe that more needs to be done here, but banning firearms - effectively or otherwise - is simply not an option in the States.
Your freedoms stop where another’s begin. I don’t see this as a reduction in freedom, it’s a protection of the freedoms of those who are being protested against. Defending against violence is not, strictly, an attack on freedoms.
See previous point. Religious freedom must end where another’s life and liberty begin. While I generally agree that individuals and religious institutions should be allowed to freely practice their religion, this must be tempered by the individual rights of others. With specific respect to the LGBTQ+ community, many religious groups actively dehumanize and some actively promote violence against them.
I would argue that this situation ultimately boils down to a lack of understanding of authoritarian rule and the damage that can occur because of it. The American education system is largely gutted when it comes to history - our own and otherwise - and I believe this trend toward authoritarianism is largely due to that - and persistent class warfare by the Capitalist class, but that’s a different conversation, I think.
People don’t really learn about what happened in Nazi Germany, or Fascist Italy, or Imperial Japan, or the Soviet Union, or Communist China, or British India, or probably dozens of other examples I can’t think of off the top of my head.
Yes, I’m aware of what incitement is; I know about the Brandenberg decision. I’ve also had a number of liberal friends–not leftists–that think that a confederate flag stick on a truck counts as incitement, and that it should be banned.
I’d also like to point out that Dems have advanced a bill that would prevent Facebook, et al., from using algorithmic feeds, due to nebulous “won’t someone think of the children!” claims (I’d have to pull up the TechDirt and EFF articles about that to give you a citation). The flip side of that is Republicans keep passing “Don’t Say Gay” bills, which are also blatant 1A violations.
Absolutely. I agree with you 100%. But it’s not about preventing violence (in this case; in many cases where cities and states are keeping competing protest groups apart, it is about stopping violence), it’s about keeping people who may be protesting loudly away from people that need reproductive care, because they feel intimidated, even if people aren’t touching/directing intimidating them or physically preventing them from accessing clinics.
This one is fuzzy, because what if you’re ‘consenting’ (and I use the term loosely here, since I think that all religion is deeply coercive) to harm being done to your person? Take, for instance, conversion therapy, which has been completely banned in some states. What if your religion has taught you that all of your sexual desires are sinful, and you believe that conversion therapy will help you lead a reduced-sin life? And how exactly do you separate religious liberty out from these things, and allow religions to have their own doctrine, while also saying they can’t do harm? Like, for instance, the Westboro Baptist Church? They certainly have hateful doctrine and dogma, and I’ve definitely seen people saying that their religious freedoms should be clamped down on.
I don’t disagree at all. I’m generally anti-authoritarian, and generally quite far left. When I look at current Republicans, I see a group that is very highly authoritarian, and extremely economically and socially conservative. When I look at most current Democrats, I see moderate authoritarians, moderately economically conservative, and largely socially liberal. What I take issue with is people that say that Republicans are authoritarians, and Democrats are not, when that’s simply not accurate.